Anagrams

An Anagram, as you know, is a word or phrase made by transposing or rearranging the letters of another word or phrase. The following are exceptionally clever. Someone out there is deadly at Scrabble and should probably work for the government!.

Dormitory Dirty Room
Evangelist Evil's Agent
Desperation A Rope Ends It
The Morse Code Here Come Dots
Slot Machines Cash Lost in 'em
Animosity Is No Amity
Mother-in-law Woman Hitler
Snooze Alarms Alas! No More Z's
Alec Guinness Genuine Class
Semolina Is No Meal
The Public Art Galleries Large Picture Halls, I Bet
A Decimal Point I'm a Dot in Place
The Earthquakes That Queer Shake
Eleven plus two Twelve plus one
Contradiction Accord not in it
Princess Diana Ascend in Paris

This one's truly amazing:

"To be or not to be: that is the question, whether tis nobler in the
mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune."

And the Anagram:

"In one of the Bard's best-thought-of tragedies, our insistent hero,
Hamlet, queries on two fronts about how life turns rotten."

And for the grand finale:

"That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind."* Neil Armstrong

The Anagram:

"Thin man ran; makes a large stride, left planet, pins flag on moon! On to Mars!"

Back from Korea

I am back from Korea

Our next launch will be off the Soyuz with only 4 at a time. Soyuz has the best launch record in the business. Has and availability of .99+ Even better than our Delta II

They have a stockpile of them left from the Cold War. So they just roll one out--refurbish the rubber seals and blast it off. They can do it on 30 day centers. That makes us 10 more launches instead of 4 and sets us back for Cell Phone service by 6 to 7 months.

I ate a lot of very "funny" things in Korea. Mostly leaves. I sat at a table about 12" off the ground in my sock feet setting on the floor---liked to killed this old man in the knees.

We had about 30 little dishes and chop sticks. We would take a "weed" leaf and drop a little of this and a little of that from the bowls into it and add "hot" stuff. roll it up and eat it like a burrito.

You do get your "ruffage". No problem going to the benjo. (Jim will remember what a benjo is). I saw NO fat people. NONE. They get very little fat and not much protein.

12 million live in Seoul and there are 45 million in ROK. The country is all mountains. The average is around 2000 meters. Not many flat spots. If it is flat--it is a rice field. Rice was just about ready to harvest. I went out into a field and looked at the seeds. Not allowed to bring any home thru customs.

We had to hike up a mountain to the bore sight antenna. It was about 700 meters and it seemed straight up. Had to go thru a farmers barn lot. He was drying about 500 lbs of peanuts. Had good looking cows--three of them. A few pigs. Some chickens. And some sweet corn that was about ready. Plus a "bunch of leaves" growing. I ate one and it tasted like peppermint--it was larger than the palm of my hand.

One of the Site fellows had to carry a 12 volt car battery up to the bore sight. Robert Madonia and I both told them a few months ago to install solar panels and dry gel batteries-they insist in paying big bucks to bring in power at all the sites.

I came home and ate some homemade taquitos--gringo food--I needed it. I ate Japanese on the airplane--no fat in Japan either.

Fred

Barber Pole Lore

In the Middle Ages, barbers cut a bit more than just hair. Their repertoire included such additional services as surgery, tooth extractions and, most importantly for our purposes, bloodletting (just an early method of draining poisons from the body).

Naturally, there was a specific methodology to follow when "curing" a patient by draining off a pint or two. The barber surgeon had the patient firmly grasp a wooden staff to make the veins in the arm stand out, then used a long white bandage to tie the arm off. The blood was collected in a basin, which doubled as a storage bin for the leeches. After the bloodletting (by leeches or incision), the patient’s arm was bound up with another bandage until the bleeding clotted. The blood-soaked bandage would be removed and the patient would be off, cleansed and (we suppose) healthy again.

The bandages were hung on the staff (to make a nice, compact kit that was close at hand when needed) and sometimes placed outside as advertisement. Twirled by the wind, they would form a red & white spiral pattern – and now it begins to sound familiar. The earliest poles were capped with a leech basin – which, in time, was transformed into a ball.

One interpretation of the colors of the barber pole is that red represented the blood, blue the veins, and white the bandages.

Extra Note: French authorities made a distinction between academic surgeons (surgeons of the long robe) and barber surgeons (surgeons of the short robe), to the chagrin of the shorties. However, the barber surgeons were eventually accepted to the point that, by the fourteenth century, they had their own guild and, in 1505, were admitted to the faculty of the University of Paris.

Dangerous Chemicals

Author: MARTIN RAHN at globalstar-01 Date: 8/11/97 9:40 AM

A freshman at Eagle Rock Junior High won first prize at the Greater Idaho Falls Science Fair, April 26.

He was attempting to show how conditioned we have become to the alarmists practicing junk science and spreading fear of everything in our environment. In his project he urged people to sign a petition demanding strict control or total elimination of the chemical "dihydrogen monoxide." And for plenty of good reasons, since it can

1. cause excessive sweating and vomiting
2. it is a major component in acid rain
3. it can cause severe burns in its gaseous state
4. accidental inhalation can kill you
5. it contributes to erosion
6. it decreases effectiveness of automobile brakes
7. it has been found in tumors of terminal cancer patients

He asked 50 people if they supported a ban of the chemical. Forty-three said yes, six were undecided, and only one knew that the chemical was water. The title of his prize winning project was, "How Gullible Are We?" He feels the conclusion is obvious.

Daylight Savings Time

Azburrsage@aol.com wrote:

Message for Sunday Oct. 25th

Greetings to all you of you who now aren't sure what time it is. I think you are all victims of Daylight Foolishness Time. Here you go again having to readjust your lives based on some nebulous idea that you have done something valuable by changing your clock???

Welcome back to real time. One of the advantages of living in Arizona is one does not bother with such foolishness. The time is always what the time IS, nothing more, nothing less. Ah well, it is always humorous to watch the rest of the country ( Hawaii and parts of Indiana excepted) throw themselves out of sync twice a year.

Hope you don't arrive for Church or appointments too early due to forgetting to reset the clock.

Bye the way, what time is it?

Are you sure?

Wish you all well.

Roger

An Embarrassed Eagle

Our National bird is the American Bald Eagle. One was found in the woods near St. Louis, MO and brought to a local vet.

He found buckshot in its wing. The local police thought there might have been Fowl play.

After further investigation, they determined that the eagle was so ashamed of the goings on in the White House--it had tried to commit suicide.

Famous Last Words

"Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons."
Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science, 1949

"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."
Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943

"I have traveled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best people, and I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won't last out a year."
The editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall, 1957

"But what is it good for?"
Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, commenting on the microchip, 1968

"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."
Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp.,1977

"This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us."
Western Union internal memo, 1876

The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn better than a 'C', the idea must be feasible."
A Yale University management professor in response to Fred Smith's paper proposing reliable overnight delivery service. Smith went on to found Federal Express.

"I'm just glad it'll be Clark Gable who's falling on his face and not Gary Cooper."
Gary Cooper on his decision not to take the leading role in "Gone With The Wind."

"A cookie store is a bad idea. Besides, the market research reports say America likes crispy cookies, not soft and chewy cookies like you make."
Response to Debbie Fields' idea of starting Mrs. Fields Cookies

"We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out."
Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962

"If I had thought about it, I wouldn't have done the experiment. The literature was full of examples that said you can't do this."
Spencer Silver on the work that lead to the unique adhesives for 3M "Post-it" Notepads

"So we went to Atari and said, 'Hey, we've got this amazing thing, even built with some of your parts, and what do you think about funding us? Or we'll give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay our salary, we'll come work for you.' And they said, 'No.' So then we went to Hewlett-Packard, and they said, 'Hey, we don't need you. You haven't got through college yet.' "
Apple Computer Inc. founder Steve Jobs on attempts to get Atari and H-P interested in his and Steve Wozniak's personal computer.

"Professor Goddard does not know the relation between action and reaction and the need to have something better than a vacuum against which to react. He seems to lack the basic knowledge ladled out daily in high schools."
New York Times editorial about Robert Goddard's revolutionary rocket work, 1921

"You want to have consistent and uniform muscle development across all of your muscles? It can't be done. It's just a fact of life. You just have to accept inconsistent muscle development as an unalterable condition of weight training."
response to Arthur Jones, who solved the "unsolvable" problem by inventing Nautilus

"Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau."
Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale University, 1929

"Everything that can be invented has been invented."
Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899

"Louis Pasteur's theory of germs is ridiculous fiction."
Pierre Pachet, Professor of Physiology at Toulouse, 1872

"The abdomen, the chest, and the brain will be forever shut from the intrusion of the wise and humane surgeon."
Sir John Eric Ericksen, British surgeon, appointed Surgeon-Extraordinary to Queen Victoria, 1873

"640K ought to be enough for anybody."
Bill Gates, 1981

First Globalstar Launch

Our first launch of 4 satellites is still GO!

Our window is the 5th of Feb. between 5:21 AM and 6:21 AM Pac. Coast Time.

If the weather is bad in Florida, our window decreases a few mins each day--we can launch up thru the 8th and then we would have to wait for several days.

We have a big Early Morning Party planned for next Thursday here in San Jose. Should be at least 200 people in the mission control center viewing area and several TV and Newspaper types in our VIP observation room here in San Jose.

We will be tapped into the Cape for a "live" lift-off. This will also be Video taped for later viewing.

This will be my first time as a part of a Launch Team. I have always been on the Design side or the Ground side of satellite Projects in my past career.

Wish us Luck!

Impeachment History

Here is a bit of history that only someone that was born in Iowa would remember. I am surprised that it has not been brought up. The fact that the Congress tried to impeach Pres. Johnson has been mentioned, but they did not write or talk about Sen. Grimes. I thought this was odd. Again how important one vote can be.

If Richard Millhouse Nixon had received just ONE more vote in each precinct in Cook County, Illinois--he would have been President instead of JFK. If he had carried Cook County, he would have carried Illinois and that state was crucial to swing the Electoral College Votes.

Bit of family trivia--my wife's sister, Wanda, passed away of cancer on the 19th of Dec. She was buried in Rose Hills, CA. Just 35 feet away are the Millhouse family plots--Richard Nixon's grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, etc.-

March 5, 1868 through May 16, 1868-Chief Justice of the Supreme Court presiding:

Roll Call

"Iowa."

Senator Grimes, how say you?"

A hush fell over the United States Senate as Sen. James Grimes struggled to his feet from a stretcher. He had suffered a stroke two days before and had demanded of his Aids that they bring him in to vote.

"Not guilty."

The President of the United States, Andrew Johnson was acquitted-thirty-five for conviction and nineteen for acquittal-- the lack of the one vote needed was the one cast by Sen. Grimes. He fell back into his chair exhausted. He was just 51 years old and died 4 years later in 1872.

Pres. Andrew Johnson was in the process of being impeached for "high crimes and misdemeanors".

Pres. Johnson's "misdemeanor" was in suspending the Secretary of War, Stanton, who had been appointed by Lincoln-the wrath of Congress fell upon him. There was no scandal, no sex problems, and nothing wrong in the President's legal behavior. The Republicans and some of the Democrats just didn't like him.

He was a former tailor and had owned his own business. He got into politics early in life by holding debates in the back room of his shop. These were very formal and politicians would come from other states to participate. He often referred to the debate team members as "Jacobeans", a name from the French Revolution.

But now we have a President that has lied under oath, committed adultery on numerous occasions, and continues to lie about his actions although he was forced to admit that he lied by Judge Kenneth Starr.

Judge Starr has every right to pursue this man. After all Judge Starr was appointed by the President's own appointee for Attorney General, Janet Reno--it must be OK.

The Russians laughed at our President during the last meeting a couple of weeks ago-the whole free world is laughing at our President and at us.

Yvonne and I have been laughing at him since before he ran the first time.

Irish

I read that the new Prime Minister of England (Blair) is meeting with the Irish Republican Army political arm--hoping for some kind of peace. First time a PM has met since 1922.

Back a thousand plus years ago the Irish used to raid the English coast--King Henry finally got fed up and sent the two Princes--Richard and John to "practice" fighting the Irish on their own soil. The "practice" was meant to hone their fighting edge for attacking the Muslims in the Middle-east. The Muslims were trying to conquer the Byzantine.

So the British and the Irish have had one awful history-- After the 1922 meeting with the English Prime Minster--Ireland was partitioned and that was the straw that broke the poor old camel's back.

It has been a mess ever since--during WWII the IRA supported NAZI Germany only because they had a common enemy--Great Britain. There are almost double the Protestants in Northern Ireland than there are Catholics. The IRA wants to bring Northern Ireland back into Ireland so it will be all one country again. Of course the British argue that most of the Protestants are British--of course that is true--the British have been bringing them into the Belfast (Ulster) area for 200 years from Scotland and northern England.

That is not so bad in itself as the Scottii people came from Ireland in the first place at the end of BC times--hence the "Mac" which is the same as "Mc" in Irish. EXCEPT they are not Catholic. The Bug-a-Boo is---the IRA Catholics allowed the Communist to join them--that was a big mistake. All the Communists wanted to do was keep the flames burning as they have tried to do in every country.

This is a very ancient problem (1200 years) and the only thing I can think of is---GIVE IT UP! I don't have a drop of Irish blood nor English blood--only Welsh, Scot, and German--and I say, "Queen Elizabeth, give it up." It is an economic loss to continue and people are being killed every month even with the so called truce. The British pour millions of pounds into Belfast every year and get zip in return. It is a heavy drain on the English taxpayers.

The truck bombs and the pipe bombs are every bit as dangerous as the Land Mines that Princess Diana was trying to get the World to stop using. (In case you forgot--Prince Richard became King Richard the Lion Hearted and Prince John became King John who was FORCED to sign the Magna Carta--I suspect after he poisoned Richard, his brother). Fred

Language Oddities

"Our Crazy Language"

Did you know that "verb" is a noun?

How can you look up words in a dictionary if you can't spell them?

If a word is misspelled in a dictionary, how would we ever know?

If two mouses are mice and two louses are lice, why aren't two houses hice?

If Webster wrote the first dictionary, where did he find the words?

If you wrote a letter, perhaps you bote your tongue?

If you've read a book, you can reread it. But wouldn't this also mean that you would have to "member" somebody in order to remember them?

In Chinese, why are the words for crisis and opportunity the same?

Is it a coincidence that the only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is uncopyrightable?

Is there another word for a synonym?

Shouldn't there be a shorter word for "monosyllabic"?

What is another word for "thesaurus"?

Where do swear words come from?

Why can't you make another word using all the letters in "anagram"?

Why do fat chance and slim chance mean the same thing?

Lightning on Water

Somebody asked:>

My young neighbour asked me what happens when lightning strikes water. Do all the fish die and what happens to the occupants of metal-hulled boats?

Roger (I think) found this on the web

When a bolt of electricity, such as a lightning bolt, hits a watery surface, the electricity can run to earth in a myriad of directions.

Because of this, electricity is conducted away over a hemi-spheroid shape which rapidly diffuses any frying power possessed by the original bolt. Obviously, if a fish was directly hit by lightning, or close to the impact spot, it could be killed or injured.

However, a bolt has a temperature of several thousand degrees and could easily vaporise the water surrounding the impact point. This would create a subsurface shock wave that could rearrange the anatomy of a fish or deafen human divers over a far wider range--tens of metres.

If someone in a metal-hulled boat was close enough to feel the first effect they would be severely buffeted by the second. Besides which, metal hulls conduct electricity far better than water, so a lightning bolt would travel through the ship in preference to the water.

ANDREW HEALY - Ashford Middlesex

When lightning strikes, the best place to be is inside a conductor, such as a metal-hulled boat, or under the sea (assuming you are a fish).

Last century, the physicist Michael Faraday showed that there is no electric field within a conductor. He demonstrated this by climbing into a mesh cage and then striking artificial lightning all over it. Everybody except Faraday was surprised when he climbed out of the cage unhurt.

>ERIC GILLIES University of Glasgow Scotland (c) Copyright New Scientist, IPC Magazines Limited 1996

Fred replied:

The bolt does look for the path of least resistance. Moist air, etc. It does see a lake as a flat "path" and a lake will have less resistance than wet land. Although it would rather "hit" a tree on the lake bank if it can. When it hits out in the middle of the lake there is a "bubble" of energy out several feet until it dissipates. Fish on the "outskirts" (or swimmers) would only get a tingle. IF you were in the bubble of energy--you would lose the nerve endings for breathing plus others--maybe even heart signals. You would be in serious trouble. Fish being smaller--may die. People being protected more by body weightand surface area--mass, etc. would probably live. You sure wouldn't feel good.

I was about a 1/4 mile away when I felt the "tingle" in the Smoky Hill R.

Now when the farmer was cranking the telephone generator the current was only from the rod driven in the ground out to the copper plate hanging from the boat--there was again a "bubble" of electric energy and any fish caught in thatwas stunned by pulsating DC (not AC). The Amps were low and the Voltage was high. Other fish NOT swimming in the area would not even know they had lost their brothers and sisters.

I talked with another engineer. He said that static builds up over flat expanses of water to a higher level than over land. Since there are no "high" objects--it just gets higher and higher and finally really zaps the lake. The voltage is very high--that is why you should never swim during a storm--you would be the highest object.

Fred also wrote back in response to the Web info –

That was the "bubble" effect I was desperately trying to explain and did not do a very good job of. He used "hemi-spheroid". Poor old bald Fred used "bubble". I forgot all about the heat--that is why I was able to collect castings of bolts down by the river.

Fred wrote:

When I was a kid--Memorial Day was called Decoration Day.

Does anyone know when they changed it to Memorial Day?

I should know, but I forgot. I have tried looking it up--no luck.

Fred

Lilja, Dean wrote:

Memorial Day Background

Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a day of remembrance for those who have died in our nation's service. There are several stories as to it's actual beginnings (see below) but it was first proclaimed on 5 May 1868 by General John Logan in his General Order No. 11, and was first observed on 30 May 1868, when flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers. The South refused to acknowledge Decoration Day, honoring their dead on separate days until after World War I. It is now celebrated in almost every state on the last Monday in May (passed by Congress in 1968 to ensure a three day weekend for Federal holidays), though several southern states have an additional, separate day for honoring the Confederate war dead.

Sources and related links:

*Angel-Pie's excellent The Origins of Memorial Day page. *1993 Grolier Electronic Publishing, Inc. *How to Observe Memorial Day. *Knight, Glenn B. "The Grand Army of the Republic Home Page." Sons of the Union Veterans of the Civil War. *Roy, Nuhn. Portfolio: To Honor The Memory of the Departed. American History Illustrated 1982 17(3): 20-25. *The Veterans' Administrations The Origins of Memorial Day page.

New Jargon

You've all heard the recently coined slang phrase "Going Postal". Here are some more examples, from the book "Jargon Watch", just published by Wired magazine . . .

By the way, for the out of touch: Going Postal - Euphemism for being totally stressed out, for losing it. Makes reference to the unfortunate track record of postal employees who have snapped and gone on shooting rampages.

Alpha Geek - The most knowledgeable, technically proficient person in an office or work group. "Ask Mike, he's the alpha geek around here."

Assmosis - The process by which some people seem to absorb success and advancement by kissing up to the boss rather than working hard.

Beepilepsy - The brief seizure people sometimes have when their beeper goes off (especially in vibrator mode). Characterized by physical spasms, goofy facial expressions, and interruption of speech in midsentence.

Chips and Salsa - Chips = hardware, salsa = software. "Well, first we gotta figure out if the problem's in your chips or your salsa."

Crapplet - A badly written or profoundly useless Java applet. "I just wasted 30 minutes downloading this stinkin' crapplet!"

Dancing Baloney - Little animated GIFs and other Web F/X that are useless and serve simply to impress clients. "This page is kinda dull. Maybe a little dancing baloney will help."

Depotphobia - Fear associated with entering a Home Depot because of how much money one might spend. Electronics geeks experience Shackophobia.

Flight Risk - Used to describe employees who are suspected of planning to leave a company or department soon.

404 - Someone who's clueless. From the World Wide Web error message "404 Not Found," meaning that the requested document could not be located. "Don't bother asking him . . . he's 404, man."

Generica - Features of the American landscape that are exactly the same no matter where one is. "We were so lost in generica, I actually forgot what city we were in."

GOOD Job - A "Get-Out-Of-Debt" job. A well-paying job people take in order to pay off their debts, one that they will quit as soon as they are solvent again.

Irritainment - Entertainment and media spectacles that are annoying, but you find yourself unable to stop watching them. The O.J. trials were a prime example.

Keyboard Plaque - The disgusting buildup of dirt and crud found on computer keyboards.

Nyetscape - Nickname for AOL's less-than-full-featured Web browser.

Ohnosecond - That minuscule fraction of time in which you realize that you've just made a BIG mistake. Seen in Elizabeth P. Crowe's book The Electronic Traveller.

PEBCAK - Tech support shorthand for "Problem Exists Between Chair and Keyboard." (Techies are a frustrated, often arrogant lot. They've submitted numerous acronyms and terms that poke fun at the clueless users who call them up with frighteningly stupid questions. Another variation on the above is ID10T: "This guy has an ID-Ten-T on his system.")

Percussive Maintenance - The fine art of whacking the heck out of an electronic device to get it to work again.

Prairie Dogging - When someone yells or drops something loudly in a "cube farm" (an office full of cubicles) and everyone's head pops up over the walls to see what's going on.

Seagull Manager - A manager who flies in, makes a lot of noise, sh_ts over everything and then leaves.

Telephone Number Salary - A salary (or project budget) that has seven digits.

Tourists - People who take training classes just to get a vacation from their jobs. "We had about three serious students in the class; the rest were tourists."

Umfriend - A relationship of dubious standing. "This is Hank, my...um...friend..."

Uninstalled - Euphemism for being fired. Heard on the voicemail of a vice president at a downsizing computer firm: "You have reached the number of an uninstalled vice president. Please dial our main number and ask the operator for assistance." See also Decruitment (but not in this list).

Vulcan Nerve Pinch - The taxing hand position required to reach all of the appropriate keys for certain commands. For instance, the warm boot for a Mac II involves simultaneously pressing the Control key, the Command key, the Return key and the Power On key.

Yuppie Food Stamps - The ubiquitous (widespread) $20 bills spewed out of ATMs everywhere. Often used when trying to split the bill after a meal: "We all owe $8 each, but all anybody's got is yuppie food stamps.

Old Jokes

My wife is at it again--she found these in the little "throw away" newspaper in Las Vegas---probably should have thrown it away

Did you know? The Chinese were the first known people to have more than one name when the Emperor Fushi decreed the use of surnames about 2852 BC.

What is the only word that can be made from the following l4 letters? AABEEELNNORSSS.

Why do cat's eat cheese? So they can breathe down mouse holes with baited breath!

Why did the farmer buy a brown cow? Because he wanted chocolate milk.

These are jokes for all ages. I think I need to get out of the house once in a while and go gamble. The answer to the question of what is the only word you can make out of the letters I gave you previously is Reasonableness. I suppose you already figured it out.

A Fun Quiz

The Questions

1. The maker doesn't want it; the buyer doesn't use it; and the user doesn't see it. What is it?
2. A child is born in Boston, Massachusetts to parents who were both born in Boston, Massachusetts. The child is not a United States citizen. How is this possible?
3. Before Mount Everest was discovered, what was the highest mountain on Earth?
4. Clara Clatter was born on December 27th, yet her birthday is always in the summer. How is this possible?
5. Captain Frank and some of the boys were exchanging old war stories. Art Bragg offered one about how his grandfather led a battalion against a German division during World WarI. Through brilliant maneuvers he defeated them and captured valuable territory. After the battle he was presented with a sword bearing the inscription "To Captain Bragg for Bravery, Daring and Leadership. World War One. From the Men of Battalion 8." Captain Frank looked at Art and said, "You really don't expect anyone to believe that yarn, do you?" What's wrong with the story?
6. What is one thing that all wise men, regardless of their religion or politics, agree is between heaven and earth?
7. In what year did Christmas and New Year's fall in the same year?
8. A woman from New York married ten different men from that city, yet she did not break any laws. None of these men died and she never divorced. How was this possible?
9. Why are 1990 American dollar bills worth more than 1989 American dollar bills?
10. How many times can you subtract the number 5 from 25?
11. A taxi driver was called to take a group of passengers to the train station. The station is normally an hour away, but with traffic being extra heavy, it took a full hour and a half. On the return trip the traffic was still as heavy and yet it took only 90 minutes. Why?
12. How could you rearrange the letters in the words "new door" to make one word? Note: There is only one correct answer.
13. Even if they are starving, natives living in the Arctic will never eat a penguin's egg. Why not?
14. Which is correct to say, "The yolk of the egg are white" or "The yolk of the egg is white"?
15. In Okmulgee, Oklahoma, you cannot take a picture of a man with a wooden leg. Why not?
16. There were an electrician and a plumber waiting in line for admission to the "International Home Show". One of them was the father of the other's son. How could this be possible?
17. After the new Canon Law that took effect on November 27, 1983, would a Roman Catholic man be allowed to marry his widow's sister?

The Answers

1. A coffin
2. The child was born before 1776
3. Mount Everest, it just hadn't been discovered!
4. Clara lives in the Southern Hemisphere.
5. World War I wasn't called "World War I" until World War II.
6. The word "and".
7. They fall in the same year every year, New Year's Day just arrives very early in the year and Christmas arrives very late in the same year.
8. The lady was a Justice of the Peace.
9. One thousand nine hundred and ninety-dollar bills are worth one dollar more than one thousand nine hundred and eighty-nine-dollar bills.
10. Only once, then you are subtracting it from 20.
11. An hour and a half IS 90 minutes.
12. "One word"
13. Penguins live in the Antarctic.
14. Neither, the yolk of the egg is yellow.
15. You have to take a picture of a man with a camera, not with a wooden leg.
16. They were husband and wife.
17. He can't because he's dead.

Fun Quotes

Quotes On The Nature Of The Universe

Carl Zwanzig: "Duct tape is like the Force. It has a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together...."

Douglas Adams: "There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened."

Albert Einstein: "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."

Unknown: "Astronomers say the universe is finite, which is a comforting thought for those people who can't remember where they leave things."

Edward P. Tryon: "In answer to the question of why it happened, I offer the modest proposal that our Universe is simply one of those things which happen from time to time."

John Andrew Holmes: "It is well to remember that the entire universe, with one trifling exception, is composed of others."

Max Frisch: "Technology is a way of organizing the universe so that man doesn't have to experience it."

Kilgore Trout: "The universe is a big place, perhaps the biggest."

Woody Allen: "I'm astounded by people who want to 'know' the universe when it's hard enough to find your way around Chinatown."

Douglas Adams: "In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."

William J. Broad: "The crux... is that the vast majority of the mass of the universe seems to be missing."

Rich Cook: "Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning."

Fred Hoyle: "There is a coherent plan in the universe, though I don't know what it's a plan for."

Ray Bradbury: "We are an impossibility in an impossible universe."

Christopher Morley: "My theology, briefly, is that the universe was dictated but not signed."

Edward Chilton: "I'm worried that the universe will soon need replacing. It's not holding a charge."

Calvin and Hobbes (Bill Watterson): "The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us."

Fred E. Barber "In thinking about the infinite Universe, I have to come to the conclusion that there are absolutely no absolutes and that is an absolute fact."

Teaching Techniques

For all us Science minded folks who are philosophers:

Some time ago I received a call from a colleague, who asked if I would be the referee on the grading of an examination question. He was about to give a student a zero for his answer to a physics question, while the student claimed he should receive a perfect score and would if the system were not set up against the student.

The instructor and the student agreed to an impartial arbiter, and I was selected. I went to my colleague's office and read the examination question:

"Show how it is possible to determine the height of a tall building with the aid of a barometer."

The student had answered: "Take the barometer to the top of the building, attach a long rope to it, lower it to the street, and then bring it up, measuring the length of the rope. The length of the rope is the height of the building."

I pointed out that the student really had a strong case for full credit since he had really answered the question completely and correctly. On the other hand, if full credit were given, it could well contribute to a high grade in his physics course. A high grade is supposed to certify competence in physics, but the answer did not confirm this. I suggested that the student have another try at answering the question. I was not surprised that my colleague agreed, but I was surprised when the student did.

I gave the student six minutes to answer the question with the warning that the answer should show some knowledge of physics. At the end of five minutes, he had not written anything. I asked if he wished to give up, but he said no. He had many answers to this problem; he was just thinking of the best one. I excused myself for interrupting him and asked him to please go on. In the next minute, he dashed off his answer which read:

"Take the barometer to the top of the building and lean over the edge of the roof. Drop the barometer, timing its fall with a stopwatch. Then, using the formula x=0.5*a*t^2, calculate the height of the building."

At this point, I asked my colleague if he would give up. He conceded, and gave the student almost full credit. In leaving my colleague's office, I recalled that the student had said that he had other answers to the problem, so I asked him what they were.

"Well," said the student. "there are many ways of getting the height of a tall building with the aid of a barometer. For example, you could take the barometer out on a sunny day and measure the height of the barometer, the length of its shadow, and the length of the shadow of the building, and by the use of simple proportion, determine the height of the building."

"Fine," I said, "and others?"

"Yes," said the student." There is a very basic measurement method you will like. In this method, you take the barometer and begin to walk up the stairs. As you climb the stairs, you mark off the length of the barometer along the wall. You then count the number of marks, and this will give you the height of the building in barometer units.

"A very direct method."

"Of course. If you want a more sophisticated method, you can tie the barometer to the end of a string, swing it as a pendulum, and determine the value of g at the street level and at the top of the building. From the difference between the two values of g, the height of the building, in principle, can be calculated."

"On this same tack, you could take the barometer to the top of the building, attach a long rope to it, lower it to just above the street, and then swing it as a pendulum. You could then calculate the height of the building by the period of the precession."

"Finally," he concluded, "there are many other ways of solving the problem. Probably the best," he said, "is to take the barometer to the basement and knock on the superintendent's door. When the superintendent answers, you speak to him as follows: 'Mr. Superintendent, here is a fine barometer. If you will tell me the height of the building, I will give you this barometer.'"

At this point, I asked the student if he really did not know the conventional answer to this question. He admitted that he did, but said that he was fed up with high school and college instructors trying to teach him how to think.

Tea Party

It was just 224 years ago today that a group of Bostonians boarded three ships belonging to the India Compnay and broke open 342 chests of tea and dumped it into the harbor.

(The fish must have had a fine time).

This was in opposition to the Stamp Act. You could not even be married without getting the Crown's stamp on the document. It was melted sealing wax first and then impressed with the official stamp. The tax for marriage was 7 Shilling. In today's money that would be around 24 dollars. Hard to come by.

The colonists were used to "Salutory Neglect"

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